Wednesday, 2 December 2015

A Reading Round-Up

There’ve been a few books that have stood
out recently. My friend Matt made sure that I read ‘Blankets’, an earlier
graphic novel by Craig Thompson, after I’d enjoyed ‘Space Dumplins’ so much
last month. ‘Blankets’ is a very sweet, incredibly slow moving tale of first
love and strange, ultra-religious families. His drawing is just beautiful and
dreamlike, I think. The whole book feels a bit like being caught up in the fever
dreams of late adolescence. It’s a huge book, but one that I read through a
long November afternoon and enjoyed a lot. It’s a novel about being in love
with drawing as much as any one person.

I enjoyed a few kids’ books recently, too.
David Almond is always good value, and I’ve been falling behind with his
novels. ‘Jackdaw Summer’ is as strange and moving as any of his previous books.
This time it struck me how good he is at rendering sounds: particularly
of the countryside. At the same time I was reading ‘In Darkling Wood’ and
discovering Emma Carroll for the first time. This one’s a tale of dark woods
and fairies that only certain people are able to see; and brothers in hospital
and grouchy grandmas with long-held secrets. It was a short, intense read,
steeped in gorgeous atmosphere.

Then I relished the giddy ‘Not Quite Nice’
by Celia Imrie: a silly comic novel about ex-pats in Nice. It reminded me quite
a lot of the wonderful Lou Wakefield novels of a few years ago. It’s a fun
read, but there were too many characters, I think, and I kept losing track of
them.

Much darker and starker: Jane Shemilt’s
‘The Drowning Lesson.’ It’s a year since I was enthralled by her first,
‘Daughter’, and this novel employs the same shuttlecocking back-and-forth in
time for its first half, which is at first disorienting and then satisfying in
the reveal of the tragedy promised by the back cover blurb. Her books belong to
that genre of the modern Domestic Gothic – in which very well off and
successful professional people have their lives trashed for our
entertainment. Shemilt has specialized in the missing-children corner of the
genre and this one, with its African setting and rather morbid surgeon heroine,
is gripping right up until the final page. Definitely recommended.

As is Rachel Joyce, whose first two novels
I enjoyed a lot. Her Christmassy collection, ‘A Snow Garden’ is terrific, I
think. These are mostly succinct and rewarding stories – her background in
radio drama is apparent at every turn in the deft and concise way she brings
characters and situations to life just enough to make the story sing, and
no more. My favourites here involved a divorced father trying to entertain his
dreadful sons, and a very smart airport story that makes you groan at first,
when you realise where it’s going, but that wins you over with sheer charm by
the end.

Added to all of this, I’ve just discovered
Philippa Pearce’s ‘A Dog So Small’ and it made me weep with its beautiful final
chapter. I think she writes wonderfully and so touchingly. However, I’m also at
that point in the year – a year that’s been fraught with all kinds of stuff –
and just about anything could set me off just now.

Right – maybe it’s time for some Christmas
reading. What do you think..?